Will an Eliza-Arizona romance cause big drama?

February 25, 2017

Eliza Minnick may have come in hot, but Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy proved the newest staffer at Grey Sloan isn’t all bad.

In a bid to take her teaching methods to the next level, Eliza (Marika Dominczyk) implemented Phase 2, which allowed residents to take the lead on surgical cases. Unfortunately, it led to the death of Eliza’s first adolescent patient, knocking the doc off her game. How will this tragedy affect her standing at Grey Sloan?

“It doesn’t change her methods so much as it changes her approach to her own methods,” Dominczyk tells EW. “It makes her take a step back and really reevaluate how she’s implementing these things that she knows are best for the hospital, but maybe the way she’s been conveying it hasn’t been the best way. She’s not a quitter, but you do see a totally different side to her, because it really hits home and hits a nerve that she didn’t foresee this happening.”

In fact, Dominczyk looks at this as the turning point where the audience may start to warm up to Minnick. “I would hope so,” she says. “What this episode does is makes her seem more human, that she recognizes her own flaws at this point. She gets really vulnerable at a certain point, and lets her guard down completely, so you get a glimpse of it. I hope people get a feeling of who she is, and not just this person who bosses everyone around and is nosy and so aggressive with what she wants.”

It was in the company of Arizona that Minnick felt most comfortable in letting down her guard. The two docs have danced around a flirtation as Arizona is torn over her loyalty to Richard (James Pickens Jr.), whom Minnick has basically come in to replace, and her budding feelings for Eliza. Would a romance between them stir up even more drama at Grey Sloan? “Uh, you think?” Dominczyk says with a laugh. “Yeah, anytime a line is drawn and people have to choose sides, it’s not good for anybody. There are definitely lines drawn. People have very strong feelings about Eliza, so you’ve got to be cautious.”

In the meantime, their future as a couple remains murky. “It’s slow,” Dominczyk says. “I honestly don’t know where their relationship goes, like what the end goal is. I think they’re very attracted to each other. Will you see more of that? Possibly.”